Welcome to our huge blog hop and celebration of Send A Smile 4 Kids’ 175th Challenge! The theme of our blog hop is Christmas in July 4 Kids because it is never too early to start making holiday cards for all the kids in the many children’s hospitals we now serve. We would love for each child to receive a holiday card as well as be able to pick some for special medical staff or loved ones they are missing during the holiday season.

We have 16 stops in the blog hop and at each stop you have one or two chances at winning – just leave a comment. If you are hopping you should have arrived here from Janet Bailey’s blog. You can also earn a chance to win a prize by commenting on the blog post on our SAS4Kids blog and also by entering your hand made card (for KIDS) to the Christmas in July challenge which starts July 21st and runs through August 3rd at noon.

All rules are listed on the SAS4KIDS challenge page. See a list of all the wonderful sponsors and prizes you could win HERESAS4KIDS challenge page.

The prize being awarded through my blog is a Stampendous (Spring Borders) die set (oh the possibilities with these dies — right?)

Because I used a Paper Nest Doll digi today in my first card, you will have a chance to win Avery Christmas Dress digi.

This is the list of the participants in the blog hop with links to their blogpost:

A few years ago I saw a Christmas Tree decorated in Peacock Feathers and colors, it looked absolutely gorgeous, and these colors have been my favorite Christmas colors ever since. I thought I would give it a try with this card.

I used a digi image from Paper Nest Dolls called Christmas Tree Avery. I love how Avery is holding the tree topper in her hand waiting to put it on top of the tree. The sentimet is from Stamps of Life. I used Copic Sketch Markers for coloring and Wink of Stella glitter pens for the ornaments on her dress. For the die cut tree, papers from my stash were used. I inked up some cardstock with Distress Oxides and then die cut the lights and ornaments, I used glitter paper to cut out the string for the ornaments and li,ghts.

And this is the second card. I try to make cards that nothing will fall off. This is a card a little one could carry around with them (they love to do that). I used Stamps of Life Santa2stamp and dies along with the HoHoHo sentiment (this sentiment was part of 2015 Christmas card making kit from Stamps of Life). All were colored with copics, papers from my stash.

Thanks so much for hopping along. Good Luck with winning prizes, don’t forget to make comments (we love them) and most importantly thanks also for all the cards you make that put smiles on all the kids faces.

The current challenge over at SAS4KIDS is calling 4 Girl Cards. I chose to use a digi from one of the sponsors of the challenge Paper Nest Dolls. I loved the bunny slippers on this “Princess and the Pea” image. The papers I used are from Recollections which I have had forever, the sentiment and ribbon are from Stamps of Life. I colored her in Copics and Wink of Stella Glitter Markers (the pea and the tierra). The dies are Card Creator Spellbinders. I don’t like to use any embellishments that can cause a choking hazard to the kids so I often will use Dazzles on my cards to add a little bling.

This card will be going to SAS4KIDS (I am a volunteer shipper — shipping to St. Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia, PA and Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey, PA).